REPORT
/ INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Obama: Mercury air pollution rule faces test at U.S. top court

Source: Planet Ark, Date: March , 2015

The latest legal
test of President Barack Obama's environmental agenda reaches the U.S. Supreme
Court on Wednesday as the justices consider a challenge to a regulation
intended to limit emissions of mercury and other hazardous pollutants mainly
from coal-fired power plants. The nine justices are due to hear a 90-minute
oral argument on whether the Environmental Protection Agency should have
considered the cost of compliance when deciding whether to regulate the
pollutants. Industry groups and some states appealed after an appeals court
upheld the regulation in June 2014. Among companies opposing the rule are
Peabody Energy Corp, the nation's largest coal producer. Exelon Corp, the
biggest U.S. nuclear power plant operator, is one of several power companies
that support the rule.